DC

DC kicks off the year with a new sales record: Average numbers of the DC Universe line dropped by 21% in January, to 24,321 -- the lowest number in the history of these charts, by about 4,000 units. Traditionally a weak month in the comic-book market, January 2011 was even more of a downer than usual for DC. With only five titles selling above the 50k mark, average comic-book sales of the company at large fell to 21,922, the lowest figure since March 2009, while average Vertigo sales clung to the 10,000-unit mark, as they've done for the last three years. The poor January performance of the DC Universe line comes thanks to three different kinds of erosion. First up, DC failed to get Green Lantern, Batman Incorporated and The Flash out of the door, three of its major titles, while a fourth one, Batman: The Dark Knight, was still late from December. Second, DC is looking at a whole range of failing titles: Out of the 43 ongoing monthly DC Universe series currently on sale, eight have been marked for cancellation and won't be around come June 2011. That's almost 20% of the imprint's regular output. And there are eight more -- Doc Savage, The Spirit, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Jonah Hex, Booster Gold, Power Girl, Zatanna and Gotham City Sirens -- that look less than healthy and sell fewer copies than some of the ones that have already been axed. At the tail end of the spectrum, finally, six former WildStorm titles were absorbed into the DC Universe line in January, where they end up being the six lowest-selling books and dragging down the average. (If WildStorm were still around, this would be another new low for them: The six books, one of which missed the charts altogether, have average sales of less than 4,000 units.) So, for better or ill, 2011 is set to be a year of transition for DC, with some heavy lifting in the company's periodical line. See below for the details, and please consider the small print at the end of the column. Thanks to Milton Griepp and ICv2.com for the permission to use their figures. An overview of ICv2.com's estimates can be found here.

There are some well-sourced rumblings out there that DC is ending its First Wave line. The First Wave books centered around several pulp heroes, including Doc Savage, The Spirit, the Blackhawks, and Rima the Jungle Girl. The reason isn't entirely clear, but the stand alone DOC SAVAGE and SPIRIT books were selling below 10K copies, which is well into the danger zone on today's comics.

This week's EW contains the first photos of Henry Cavill "as" Superman -- if you call wearing a T-shirt dressing as Superman. According to the story, the first time he wore the duds, the handsome Englishman was able to overcome the inherent silliness of the panties and cape look:

The new DC Entertainment has added another high-powered ex-Disney West Coaster to its roster as Courtney Simmons has filled the position of SVP of Publicity. The current New York-based publicity team of David Hyde, Pamela Mullins, and Austin Trunick will report to Simmons, who has worked for Disney, Sony and Lego -- we'd say that covers it all.

Anthology comics are considered sales poison these days so few are launched, which is a shame because there is a horde of talent out there that would shine in the short-form format. Vertigo is giving it a whirl with STRANGE ADVENTURES, an anthology which will launch in May and include eight ten-page SF stories. Highlights include the first chapter of SPACEMAN, the new Azzarello/Risso series. Peter Milligan, Scott Snyder, and Jeff Lemire will also be lending their talents to the book. The cover is by Paul Pope but Mark Buckingham supplies a variant, seen above.

Wandering the halls of the 2011 Toy Fair for even a few moments, it was hard to avoid Green Lantern -- not only action figures (for both collectors and actual children) but costumes, board games, mugs, rings, and more, more, more. It's all by design as this report from Variety details. It's hard to overemphasize how important this summer's Green Lantern movie is to Warners. This is potentially their new Star Wars, with a giant universe of aliens and adventure and a wisecracking, aspirational hero at the center. The promotional push at Toy Fair and the upcoming MAGIC apparel show is huge -- but it isn't an automatic slam dunk, hence the push:

MAC Cosmetics has debuted a commercial for its Wonder Woman themed makeup line, featuring animations by Michael Allred. Call us nutso, but this seems to be one of the more successful attempts at a "mocom" -- probably because it wasn't just a comic book to begin with but was conceived as limited animation.

by Marc-Oliver Frisch

On the surface, December 2010 was a great month for DC Comics. The company had a bigger share of the market than its main competitor Marvel, if only in terms of dollar value, and took all of the Top 5 spots on the chart, as well as a total 8 out of the Top 10. That doesn't happen a lot.

Upon closer inspection, though, a less rosy picture emerges: DC's average comic-book sales in the direct market were slightly down from November, average dollar and unit sales were only slightly up. So, despite big releases like the debut of writer/artist David Finch's Batman: The Dark Knight and, over in the "Graphic Novel" section, J. Michael Straczynski's Superman: Earth One book, it turns out December was more or less business as usual, from a commercial vantage point.

Meanwhile, DC's WildStorm imprint, which the company bought from Jim Lee in 1998 and then proceeded to slowly but determinedly squeeze the life out of, ceased publication in December. Average WildStorm sales sagged below the 5K mark, to the lowest number in history.

Is it really newsworthy that a popular music figure is being mocked in the mages of MAD Magazine, where they invented the pop culture mockery?The AP says Yes!

It's the Flash and he's....coming apart????? Oh dear. Art by Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope.

DC has posted logos for five of their FLASHPOINT miniseries. FLASHPOINT seems to be a kind of DC-only alternative reality Amalgam comic where Cyborg is Superman and so on.

While we're spotlighting creators issues and outlooks here at Anniversary Week at The Beat, here's an oldie but a goodie: The (Sad) Saga of Black Lightning’s Creation by Daniel Best which presents documents and drawings from writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor von Eeden, the team known to have created Black Lightning's first appearance. There's some dispute over how the two should be credited -- Isabella claims sole creative credit due to having come up with the character all on his own and described the costume and so on -- but von Eeden has drawings but...we'll we won't get into that here. von Eeden doesn't want the creator's credit--or the royalties that come with it -- but has his own opinions. But that's not what we're here to talk about today. As is well known, Isabella had the foresight to keep a piece of the character he had created independently of DC editorial -- a move he thinks backfired…